Dr. Tolian Soran
"I have an appointment with eternity, and I don't want to be late." - Tolian Soran, Star Trek: Generations '''Doctor Tolian Soran '''is the primary antagonist of ''Star Trek: Generations, ''the seventh film in the ''Star Trek ''franchise. A bitter, long-lived man who hates the universe that has taken so much from him, Soran desired to return to the Nexus: an extradimensional plane where all of one's desires become reality. Soran is portrayed by Malcolm McDowell. History Tolian Soran may appear human but is in fact an El-Aurian, a race known for living exceptionally long lives. Soran himself is over 300 years old. Soran was once a peaceful man with a wife and family, but he lost everything when his home planet was destroyed by the Borg, a race of cybernetic life-forms driven to conquer and assimilate all other forms of sentient life. Soran survived the Borg invasion along with several other El-Aurian refugees. In 2293, the transport ship SS Lakul was on its way to Earth carrying 150 El-Aurians, Soran among them. The ship was caught in an energy ribbon known as the Nexus and the crew and passengers began to phase in and out of the space-time continuum. Soran, who had come to despise the existence he had known after the loss of his family, found himself within an impossible realm where all of his desires became reality. It was paradise... but then he was pulled away from it when the USS Enterprise-B managed to beam several of the refugees from the Lakul before it was destroyed by the energy ribbon. Soran didn't want to go and after being beamed aboard the Enterprise-B frantically pleaded with his rescuers that he had to go back. His rescuers didn't understand what he was talking about and thought him delirious, sedating him. Over the next 78 years, Dr. Soran was driven by the sole purpose of returning to the Nexus and devoted all of his time to researching it. He discovered that the energy ribbon passed through the galaxy every 39 years and that it could not be entered simply by flying a ship into it, as any ships that had approached the ribbon were always either destroyed or severely damaged. The ribbon's course could be altered, however, but it would require generating a Level 12 gravimetric shockwave, which could only be done by collapsing a star. Soran, of course, was so obsessed with returning to the Nexus that he didn't care what he had to do to achieve his goal. In 2371, Soran had made a deal with the House of Duras, a Klingon family well known for its criminal activities and political agenda. The Duras sisters Lursa and B'Etor raided a Romulan outpost to acquire a supply of trilithium, a material that served as a nuclear inhibitor and could be used to stop all fusion within a star. Soran needed the trilithium to produce a device that could destroy stars in order to re-direct the Nexus ribbon to the ideal location, and the Duras sisters wanted Soran to develop a weapon of mass destruction that they could use to overthrow the Klingon Empire. With the trilithium secured, Soran travelled to the Armagosa Observatory in order to construct a solar probe, which he intended to use to collapse the Armagosa star. Before he could complete his work, the Romulans attacked the station in order to reacquire their stolen trilithium. They failed to find it due to the intervention of the USS Enterprise-D, which responded to the observatory's SOS and found Soran as the only survivor of the attack. Even with the Enterprise present, Soran refused to give up and later returned to the observatory while Enterprise officers Geordi La Forge and Data were aboard scanning for trilithium. He ambushed La Forge and knocked him out and Data, who had recently installed a chip that allowed him to feel emotions, was paralyzed with fear and could do nothing to help Geordi. Accessing his hidden lab on the observatory, Soran activated his solar probe and launched it into the Armagosa star. Lursa and B'Etor's ship arrived minutes later and retrieved Soran as well as the unconscious La Forge. After being picked up by the Duras sisters, Soran demanded that they head for the Veridian system so that the doctor could initiate the final phase of his plan. On the way, he questioned the captive La Forge about trilithium as well as the VISOR device that allowed the blind engineer to see. Soran tinkered with the VISOR and turned it into a surveillance device that allowed Lursa and B'Etor to see through his eyes when they returned him to the Enterprise in exchange for Captain Jean-Luc Picard. As part of the exchange agreement, however, Picard wished to speak with Soran before the sisters took him prisoner. Later, Soran had set up his probe launcher on the surface of Veridian III. Captain Picard beamed down to meet him and hopefully dissuade him from collapsing the Veridian star, which would result in the destruction of the entire system and the deaths of Veridian IV's 230 million inhabitants. The doctor refused to listen to Picard and the captain was seemingly unable to reach Soran due to the forcefield surrounding the launcher. Picard managed to spot a gap in the forcefield beneath a small arch of rocks which he was able to crawl under. Picard and Soran fought hand-to-hand on a mesh bridge until Soran's launcher completed its countdown. The probe was fired into the Veridian sun, creating a shockwave that shifted the approaching Nexus ribbon into position so that it skimmed across Veridian III's surface. Both Soran and Captain Picard were pulled into the Nexus and the Veridian system - including the Enterprise and its crew - were destroyed. Death Although Soran succeeded, time had no meaning inside the Nexus. Captain Picard was able to leave it and could exit anywhere at any time. He chose to return to Veridian III to stop Soran and brought a friend back with him: legendary Starfleet captain James T. Kirk, who had been pulled into the Nexus when he had saved the Enterprise-B from being destroyed by the anomaly. Suddenly confronted by Picard and another man history had considered long dead, Soran was put at a disadvantage as he tried to protect his trilithium probe launcher. Whilst Soran was distracted fighting Kirk, Picard managed to reach the launcher and sabotage it, locking the clamps that held the probe in place. Soran threatened Picard with his disruptor pistol and the captain backed away from the launcher. Soran stepped on to the launcher to see what Picard had done to it and noticed that the probe was still locked in place, just as the launch countdown finished. An expression of sorrow spread across Soran's face just before the launch platform exploded, killing him and preventing the Veridian system's destruction. Category:Aliens Category:Villains Category:Star Trek: Generations Category:Movie Deaths Category:Killers Category:Mass Murderers Category:Death by Explosion Category:Final Showdown